How To Counter A Stupid Play

I was playing in a low-limit Texas Hold 'Em game and a lady called a raised pot with 2-3. The flop came K-A-6. I had flopped top two pairs with my A-K and I had the dealer's button. It was bet in early position, this lady named Gloria called, and I raised. She called again. The next card was 3. It was checked to me and I bet. Gloria called. The last card was 3. It was checked around to me, so I bet. Gloria check-raised me with her three threes. As she scooped in the pot, my mouth was gaping. This had to be one of the most stupid plays in the history of the world and yet she stacked my money!

My purpose is not to relate to you a bad beat story. I hate bad beat stories as much as anyone. My intention is for you to be prepared for this kind of foolishness that goes on in low-limit poker.

My friend george has been known to go ballistic when he loses his chips to a person who has made stupid play.

A guy, lee in the big blind, called his raise in a Texas Hold Em game with 3-7. The flop came George had flopped the top two pairs from late position and bet. The big blind, Lee called. T he next card was a nothing; again Lee called. The last card was a club was a club and Lee won with his three of clubs. George hit the after burner and orbited the earth a few times and proceeded to lose the rest of his chips in the next half hour.

PREPARATION

What can you say to George? I mean, that was one hell of a beat! Lee at no time, at no time, had a decent reason to call. Yet he won the pot. Sometimes low-limit poker can be hard on your vocabulary, on your blood pressure and your stomach lining.

Low-limit poker is like surviving in an arctic region, where preparation is a necessity. If you are not prepared to control your emotions after this kind of beat, you lose. Big time. Readiness to withstand the loss of your money is not an easy task. The problem to focus on is the protection of the remainder of your financial stash.

The preparation for a stupid play is quite comparable to preparation for starting hand selection. Instead of remembering which hands you can play from which positions, you need to be prepared for a fluctuation in emotions. One must be careful not to become angry and reprimand the poor stupid wretch for his incredible play. What you should practice is to visualize yourself being perfectly calm and say something like, "That was a nice hand, sir." You need to play that over and over in your head until you can say it without a trace of bitterness.

Once you have mastered the emotions, you can show just a bit of anger and say something like, "Nice hand. It takes a lot of courage to play cards like that." Or maybe you could simply ask out loud, "Let's see, now. What did you have on the flop? (Or what cards did you start out with?)" Those statements will allow some of your anger to burn off and it probably won't have an effect on the one who played them.

WARNING: Do not counter a stupid play with your own brand of stupidity!

Is It Me Or Is It The Cards?

Oh, how I love to play jeux poker Français blame the cards when I lose! Those #&*+#@&! %*# things just don't have the sense to come in out of the rain. Time after time those cards let me down. In Hold 'Em, when I have the nut flush draw in hearts, black cards come on the flop. Or I get two hearts on the flop and never see another heart. That nut draw costs me some money and I will gladly pay it, but when those nut draws fail to come in time after time it sure gets discouraging. It makes me curse the cards.

LOOK FIRST TO YOURSELF

However, I need to be really sure that it is the cards that are causing me to lose consistently. The most honest and important question to ask is, "Is it me or is it the cards? When I ask that question of myself and am quite clear on the answer, the answer I get is usually me. Humble medicine, I know.

Sure, I know that those cards run badly for some period of time. No one wins all the time. That tells me that cards fluctuate - they run hot and they run cold. However, a good player takes that fluctuation into account and accommodates himself to the bad runs as well as the good ones.

I have gone through periods of play when I was convinced that the cards hated me. Perhaps I had offended the poker goddess, the lady that is known as Luck. However, when I honestly asked the question, "Is it me or is it the cards?" the answer came up me most of the time. That answer generally was validated when I re-evaluated my play and modified my approach. Then, 10 and wonder, I started to win again. And, boy, was that better than a sharp stick in the eye.

LOOK ALSO AT THE CARDS

It isn't always bad play on my part. Everyone goes through periods of bad cards, regardless of what game they play. When you can't pick up a decent starting hand, you just have to be able to discipline yourself to wait and wait. To compromise our starting requirements is a disaster waiting to Occur. The only true option is to delay spending our chips until we have a good shot at winning the pot. Each and every chip has value when we go to the cashier's cage. When we insist on playing poor-to-marginal hands when we are frustrated, we won't carry away the chips that should be ours. My goal is to always carry away just as many chips as I possibly can, day after day after day. When the cards run good for me I will have a great time. When the cards run average, I hope to concentrate on each and every hand and walk away with a modest win. When the cards run terrible I want to hold my emotions in a vice-like grip, cut my losses and maybe even mark down a small amount in the plus column. I want to get to the point where I can always answer "cards" to the question, "Is it me or is it the cards?"

The Big Difference

I have made a big deal out of the differences between the ways a good player will approach live action and tournament play. What are the major differences? How can you become proficient in both tournament and live action?

In this post now I am talking about tournament play. This in itself is a marvel because there are so many tournaments being played all across the country. Could it be the other poker writers out there don't want to let anyone in on their secrets? Hmmmmm.

HAND SELECTION

Well, my secret is out now. One major way to improve your win ratio in tournament play is one of the basic ones hand selection. What kind of hands should one select? In the early stages of play, my answer is to not play a draw hand. In taxes Hold Em. This means big pairs only. Usually just aces and kings, and sometimes queens. If the pot has not been raised, I will play and raise with queens. If the pot is raised in front of me, I will muck a pair of queens. If I have the aces or kings and at he pot, provided it isn’t a real dangerous flop (three of a suit or ten-jack-queen), I will get if it is checked to me. If I have the aces and it is bet into me after the flop, I will usually re-raise. The reason for doing so is that I want to define the hand at the lower betting limits.

In a Seven Card Stud tournament, I will only play trips, aces, kings and queens. I will raise with all of them unless I am behind a good player who has raised with a bigger door card than my pair. For instance, if I have queens and a good player raises with a king or an ace showing, I am done with it. Again, I will not playa draw hand like three parts of a flush or a straight. I certainly won't play three picture cards.

WHAT ABOUT A PAIR OF JACKS OR TENS?

What I will do with a pair of jacks or tens depends on the situation. If I am last (or next to last if the player on my left is a bit timid), I will raise with them, provided, of course, that the pot has not already been raised. If I get called, I will be very cautious. If any door card is paired, I will check. If an ace or king should fall, I will bet once and hope my opponents fold. Unless I improve those jacks or tens real quick, I don't want to invest any more money in them. Remember that the payoff in the tournament is not proportionate. Your medium-strength hands are suspect, so don't attempt to bet for value with them. Survival is the most important consideration. Play tough, tight and smart.

GET OUT EARLY

One bad carryover from live action play into early action of tournament play is continuing to play when you have marginally correct pot odds. Suppose you get caught is a situation where you are a slight favorite to catch the winning hand, but it will cost you some checks to call. Don't risk it. Get out early. Save those chips for a better situation when you are a much stronger favorite. This is a very important concept to remember as you switch from live action to tournament play. Survival is far more important than percentage play.

Relax - Let The Cards Come To You

Hey friends I love to play poker in casino. I like experiments in my game, I find it an awesome temptation to "press the cards" in a poker tournament. In a tournament I want to establish a pattern of playing, a system of taking down pots so that I can win this thing. The urge to press the cards can be my demise. When I yield to these longings, usually I end up standing instead of sitting. I have developed a motto to help me counter these yearnings. That motto is: Relax, the cards will come.

This motto has evolved for me from two sources.

Obviously, the first came because of playing in tournaments. The second source was a computer software game that I purchased from ICONWIN. As part of their Texas Hold 'Em software package, they included a regular tournament section and a one table freeze-out tournament section. Playing these programs has helped me determine that patience will payoff big time. Sure, there is one hell of a lot of difference between a computer generated game and a game of real players. No sensible person will say that the computer can duplicate live players. However, there is much to be learned from a computer simulation. For one thing, you can get a lot of action packed into just a few moments. A computer will race to the end of each hand after you have dropped out.

I found out from computer programs that there is a powerful urge to hurry up and enter the action. I found that I was pressing the hands, forcing the cards. Unfortunately, when you crowd the hands, you generally end up on the sidelines. When I learned to relax and wait for the best quality cards to come, I began to win with greater regularity. Sure, sometimes you can press the cards and get lucky. You see it every tournament: One guy plays marginal and trash hands that come in and he has a huge stack of checks. I have also noticed that those guys seldom win the tourney. They make their big move early and pile up a huge stack. Few of these players back off and play very selectively after their rush. If they could settle down and play quality cards, they would be ferocious competitors. Seldom do they make it past the middle rounds when the higher limits eat up their chips, and they seem puzzled that they can't pull down a pot with trash.

DON'T PRESS THE CARDS

Your chances of winning a poker tournament are greatly enhanced if you wait for the cards to come to you. Like a good racquet ball player, wait for the opportunity and then cash in. Wait for that ball to come to your strong side and then punish the opponent. In poker, wait for those quality cards and then come in with power. If you have any doubts about the quality of the cards in regard to position and quality of the opposition, don't take chances. If you have misgivings about the cards, throw them away. Play only with confidence and intensity. Hope hands or halfhearted play will seldom get you the pot. Play to win and you will win.